Activists meet to discuss death penalty misconceptions Eight AU death penalty activists met with other students from Georgetown and George Washington universities to discuss the misconceptions of the death penalty on Saturday.
The Maryland legislature recently proposed several bills to curtail the use of the death penalty.
Student activists joined delegates from the Maryland legislature, attorneys for inmates on death row and family members of those inmates to discuss the injustices of the death penalty system. Another notable panelist included an inmate who was on death row for four years before being exonerated.
"We achieved our objectives through people lending their voices in protest of the unjust system in Maryland," said Sedira Banan, who went to the event and is the co-founder of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty club at AU (CEDP). "The event was full of energy and built solidarity." For more information, CEDP will hold Death Penalty Awareness Week from April 12 to 16.
AU to help host performing arts camp during the summer AU, along with Stanford, UCLA and several other U.S. colleges and universities, will host different sessions of the U.S. Performing Arts camp this summer.
"This is one of the most exciting programs that I've been able to participate in," said Robert C. Pullen, director of AU's camp sessions, about this summer's sessions.
AU will be a host for the first time, and Pullen said participants will have "the opportunity to work with AU faculty and to stay on AU's fantastic campus."
Pullen is currently the manager of Personnel and Operations for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C.
Students can participate either as full-time campers, extended-day campers or day campers, and will work with AU faculty and Broadway artists to develop musical theater skills, an experience Pullen calls "invaluable."
For each session, participants will partake in acting, improvising, singing, dancing, scene study and vocal instruction workshops. Each weeklong program will end with performances by the camp participants in Greenberg Theatre.
Pullen has been working with AU's Department of Performing Arts chair Gail Humphries Mardirosian to organize this summer's events.
AU's two weeks of musical theater camp will take place July 5 to 10 and July 12 to 17. For registration information, call (888) 497-3553 or visit www.usperformaingartscamps.com. Students ages 12 to 18 are encouraged to participate.
